08 Sep 2014

SymbioticA's Master of Biological Arts

SymbioticA, the Centre for Excellence in Biological Art, is an award-winning and internationally renowned artistic laboratory dedicated to the research, learning, critique and hands-on engagement with the life sciences.

SymbioticA offers PhD, Master of Biological Arts and residency programs for artists, designers, architects, scientists and humanities scholars who wish to engage with creative bioresearch.

The Master of Biological Arts (AKA the Alternative MBA) is offered to those who are interested in what is happening with (and to) life today. The course is offered through SymbioticA, an Artistic Research Laboratory embedded within a science faculty at The University of Western Australia. Students have access to recent technology and expertise in the field of science (particularly the life sciences) but are required to explore them, hands on, in a cultural and artistic context.

We encourage critical thinking, ethical provocations, controversial future scenarios, and questioning of current practices and politics, all through a rigorous and informed engagement with the fields of art and the sciences.

The academic program is designed for experienced art practitioners, scientists, or humanities scholars who wish to engage with creative bioresearch. In addition, recent graduates already engaged in the field looking to extend their knowledge are welcome to express their interest in the course and get their hands wet in the laboratories of 'neolife'.
The first year of the course enables students to 'catch up' with the complementary field - i.e. students with art background will take science units that are relevant to their research interest and students come from the sciences will take units in fine arts and/or performance, literature etc. The second year is reserved for the student's own creative research with an access to scientific laboratories and mentorship from the arts and the sciences. The programme encourages creative and critical approach and is closely linked to the other activities in SymbioticA involving core and visiting researchers from around the world.

Previous students projects ranged from the use of living neural tissue as agents for digital corruption and misinformation; laboratory disease model mice embodying individual and social portraits; employing sleep science techniques to draw, with living sleeping bodies, imaginary landscapes; interspecies relations and feminist critique by caring and living with slime molds and converting an atomic force microscope into a musical instrument that plays, by touching living cells.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact us: sym@symbiotica.uwa.edu.au